The Union Gallery’s latest exhibit gives patrons a chance to see art from the bottom up.

Twenty-four light and bright blue pigeons dangle from the ceiling of the gallery. They are part of “The Navel Exhibit: Life Suspended Pigeons,” an art installation that features stoneware sculptures resembling dead pigeons.

The pieces were crafted by UTEP art student Eric Gardea. Fellow art students Israel Armendariz and Jorge Madrigal assisted with the project. Madrigal is the curator of the Union Gallery.

The show will be up through July 20. Gallery hours are noon-7 p.m. Monday – Saturday, second floor of the Union Building East.

Using a track system, researchers send sensors across the open land to measure a variety of conditions.

Houser

A group of UTEP students led by biology professor Dr. Craig Tweedie have escaped El Paso's 100-degree temperatures.

Tweedie and his team are conducting environmental research this summer near Barrow, Alaska, a settlement on the northernmost tip of the state. Click here to see Barrow on Yahoo! Maps.

The daily work on the Alaskan tundra is grueling. When the students return to base camp for the evening, many have been taking the time to post photos and narrative of their experiences online.

Perry Houser, a geology undergraduate, said he's learned to keep one eye open for bears and has developed a taste for the local staple, whale meat.

"We work seven days of the week, and I start my day at 7:00 am every morning," said Houser, describing the daily routine. "We don't get back to eat dinner until 7:30 pm, in which the sun is as bright as it was in the morning!"

Upon the team's arrival in Barrow in late May, snowmobiles were about the only way to travel. Now that "summer" has arrived, much of the snow has melted away. While El Paso sizzled at 106 degrees yesterday, it's highest temperature of the year, Barrow hit a high of 38.

Houser and his fellow Miners were able to attend a local whaling celebration known as a "nalukataq," which featured dancing, blanket tossing and plenty of whale meat dishes.

The Alaskan Natives hold a whaling celebration called a "nalukataq," which features dancing and a blanket toss.

To learn more about the student researchers' Alaskan adventures, visit their blogs at:

This fall, music students will tickle ivories in a new state-of-the-art piano lab.

The Department of Music’s Digital Keyboard Lab will have 25 new Roland electronic pianos and a teacher's console, paid for by a $250,000 grant from the Brown Foundation.

File photo

The lab will be connected with audio-visual aids, allowing instructors to listen through headsets to an individual student or group. The lab will be equipped to record student performances, for evaluation and critiques by professors and other musicians. It will have an observation room and a Piano Pedagogy Library.

Oscar Macchioni, assistant professor of piano pedagogy, worked closely with UTEP architect Gregory Cook and audio-visual specialist Glen Kelly to maximize the space and the connectivity of the lab. Macchioni said that the previous lab was three decades old and many of the pianos were not fully functional.

“Those types of instruments were useless for today's standards,” said Macchioni. “This (new lab) is a great acquisition for UTEP.”

Music students who are not piano majors are required to take four semesters of piano classes.

“UTEP music students and the community are going to benefit tremendously from this lab,” said Macchioni. “We will train them competitively with other higher education institutions in the country.”

The lab will also be used by the Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) program.

-Laura S. Ruelas

College Welcomes New Dean

June 25, 2007

The College of Health Sciences welcomed Kathleen A. Curtis as its new dean during a reception on June 21 at the Morgan Roderick Auditorium.

Curtis, who brings over 30 years of leadership experience, officially began her duties on June 15.

Department of Kinesiology Chair Harry Meeuwsen,right, presented Curtis with a gift from the College ofHealth Sciences.

She arrived at UTEP from CaliforniaStateUniversity in Fresno where she served as Interim Associate Dean for the College of Health and Human Services and Director of the CentralCaliforniaCenter for Health and Human Services.

Curtis served as professor and chair in the Department of Physical Therapy. While at FresnoState, she received the Faculty Research Award from the California American Physical Therapy Association and the University President's Award of Excellence.

Curtis holds a doctorate in education from the University of California-Los Angeles, a master’s in health science from San JoseStateUniversity and a bachelor’s in physical therapy from NortheasternUniversity, Boston, Mass.

As dean at UTEP, Curtis will lead 44 full-time faculty members to educate more than 1,300 students in a continually growing field. Curtis replaces Leslie Schulz, Ph.D., who stepped down from the position in fall 2006. Department of Kinesiology Chair Harry Meeuwsen, Ph.D., served as Interim Dean and has returned to his full-time teaching and administrative duties in kinesiology.

1989 UTEP grad Danny Olivas, second from right, and the rest of the Atlantis crew gathered in front of the shuttle Atlantis after a successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base on Friday, June 24.

UTEP alumnus Danny Olivas and his Atlantis crewmates were reunited with their families in Houston on Saturday, a day after Mission STS-117 came to an end with a perfect landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

A spirited crowd gathered Friday at Miner Mission Control in the Mine Shaft lounge, Union East, to witness the return of Atlantis. El Pasoans young and old held their collective breath as the shuttle emerged from the clear blue sky above Edwards. Minutes later, Atlantis touched down, and the room erupted in applause and cheers.

Photo by Laura Trejo

Youngsters gathered in front of the big screen at Miner Mission Control to watch Atlantis glide to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base.

Olivas, a 1989 mechanical engineering graduate, was part of a mission STS-117 crew that attached a new set of solar wings to the International Space Station.

During his second spacewalk, Olivas repaired a four-by-six-inch area on a shuttle exterior thermal blanket that had been torn during the launch. At the post-landing press conference, NASA managers said their initial examination showed the repaired area had reopened slightly, but held up as expected during reentry.

UTEP officials said they will invite Olivas to campus to celebrate the successful mission. Stay tuned to Horizons Online News for further details as they become available.

College of Education professors will be working with professors from the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey to help train elementary teachers in remote and indigenous areas of Chihuahua.

The collaboration, funded by a US-Mexico Training, Internships, Exchanges and Scholarships (TIES) grant from US-AID, was announced this week at the college’s 3rd annual Summer Research Conference on June 18 at UTEP.

The project is called SABEMOS (Science/Literacy Across Borders for Educators in Mexico to Promote Outstanding Schools) and its goal is to improve science-literacy education and help educate as many as 6,000 children in the use of technology.

Twelve Mexican teachers will be selected this summer to go through a master’s program with courses taught by UTEP and Tech de Monterrey professors. The project will receive assistance from Ciudad Juárez’s Secretary of Public Education and Innovación para la Educación en las Ciencias(Innovation in Science Education).

José Escamilla, director of the education graduate program at Tech de Monterrey’s VirtualUniversity, said the project will tackle disparities between rural and urban school systems in the state of Chihuahua.

Judith Munter, associate dean for UTEP’s College of Education, said one of the project’s long-term goals includes developing a joint master’s degree program in science-literacy education between UTEP and Tech de Monterrey.

– Laura Cruz

– photos by J.R. Hernandez

Make Plans for Splash 'n' Sparks

June 19, 2007

File photos

Get ready for some fun in the sun. It’s time for the annual Splash 'n' Sparks Appreciation Extravaganza for all UTEP faculty and staff.

This year’s event will be from 5:30-10:30 p.m. Friday, June 29 at the UTEP Swimming and Fitness Center.

UTEP faculty, staff and their families will be treated to a complimentary All-American Splash Meal, swimming, a volleyball tournament, softball game and a dance contest.

Danny Olivas waves before the
start of his spacewalk to repair a torn thermal blanket on the exterior of the shuttle Friday.

The crew on the docked space shuttle Atlantis and International Space Station awoke Saturday morning to a rousing tune familiar to all El Pasoans, the UTEP Fight Song. It was played for astronaut Danny Olivas, a 1989 UTEP graduate.

Olivas and spacewalking partner Jim Reilly got some rest this weekend after their successful mission Friday to repair a torn thermal blanket and fold an old solar wing out of harm's way.

The two spent a grueling 7 hours and 58 minutes working outside the shuttle and ISS on Friday, about an hour short of the longest spacewalk in U.S. history. The spacewalk record of 8 hours and 56 minutes was set by astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms in March 2001.

The troubled Russian computers that control the position of the ISS rebooted successfully on Friday, and tests over the weekend and today indicate they are running strong. Once the computers are given a clean bill of health by mission managers, the Atlantis is expected to undock Tuesday and return to Earth Thursday.

Below is a video from NASA TV of mission control playing the UTEP Fight Song for Olivas and his crewmates, and a link to an MP3 of the song.

This summer, the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts will host “El Maestro y Los Animales: A Family Printmaking Workshop” for children ages 5-12 and their families.

Courtesy of the Rubin Center

The special series of workshops is in conjunction with the Rubin Gallery’s current exhibit, “El Maestro Francisco Toledo: Art from Oaxaca, 1959 – 2006.”

Workshops will include a participatory gallery talk about the work on display, and a hands-on art activity for students to create their own animal block prints using simple materials.

The workshops are free and open to the public. Pre-registration is required. There will be a limit of 15 students per workshop. Workshops will be held on the following Saturdays from 1pm – 3 pm: June 16, 23 and 30; July 7, 14 and 21.

Toledo, a Zapotec, was born in 1940 in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. His work has been collected and exhibited throughout Mexico, Europe, South and North America and Asia. He was active in founding the Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca and Pro-OAX (the Endorsement for the Defense and Conservation of the Cultural and National Heritage of Oaxaca). For more information about the artist, visit www.franciscotoledo.net.

The workshop is funded in part by UTEP’s Hispanic Heritage Committee. Toledo's exhibit at the Rubin Gallery is sponsored by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Tethered to the end of the shuttle's robot arm, Danny Olivas repaired a torn thermal blanket on the shuttle Friday with staples, pins and steel threads.

UTEP graduate Danny Olivas contributed in a big way to a successful spacewalk around the shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station Friday.

Olivas was tasked with repairing a torn thermal blanket on the exterior of the shuttle. Anchored to the orbiter's robot arm, Olivas stapled the blanket and secured it to heat-shield tiles with steel thread and pins.

Millions of people around the world tuned into NASA TV and news channels got to watch Olivas' handiwork on live television.

At Miner Mission Control in the Union East's Mine Shaft lounge, several patrons viewed the spacewalk on a wall-sized projection screen and several high-definition TVs.

Olivas' cousin Juan Saldaña, his wife Soledad and their son John stopped by the Mine Shaft to watch.

The Saldañas witnessed the launch in person June 8 at Kennedy Space Center, and have been following the mission closely.

"When it's a member of the family going up there, it's just nerve-wracking," Juan Saldaña said, recalling the launch. "My heart was pounding, there was a frog in my throat. The whole family was holding each other ... it was a very moving experience."

Photo by J.R. Hernandez

From left: Olivas' cousin Juan Saldaña, his wife Soledad and their son John watch Olivas' spacewalk at the Mine Shaft on Friday.

After the thermal blanket repair, Olivas went on to assist partner Jim Reilly to fold up an old solar array. This was an important task, because the old array needed to be out of the way so new arrays could rotate to face the sun and provide power to the station.

Also today, Russian cosmonauts were able to bypass a suspect switch and reboot the computers that control the station's position in orbit. For the past two days, mission managers worried that the malfunctioning computers would require the crew to abandon the station.

Atlantis remains on schedule to undock from the station on Tuesday, June 19 and return to earth Thursday, June 21.

Geography
educators from UTEP and across the city participated in several
seminars June 4-8 aimed at improving geography literacy in area schools.

The
seminars, “Geographic Education Summer Seminars,” were supported by a
$31,461 grant from the National Geographic Society, through the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Teachers for a New Era
Initiative.

UTEP faculty collaborated with teachers from local school districts and El PasoCommunity College to learn how to include map and atlas skills in the classroom and bring remote places to life.

“With
the past and present emphasis on high mathematics and reading test
scores in public schools, geography education has been long neglected
at the local, state and national levels,” said Tim Cashman, assistant
professor in the College of Education.

Cashman
said one example of the negligence was revealed during a poll by the
Associated Press during the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina. The
poll illustrated that nearly one-third of young Americans couldn’t
locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi.

The seminars are an effort to create awareness and develop long-term cooperation among geography educators throughout El Paso.

Danny Olivas, who often calls himself "a space mechanic," will attempt to repair a torn thermal blanket on the shuttle's exterior Friday.

UTEP grad Danny Olivas has been picked by NASA mission managers to repair a damaged thermal blanket on the exterior of the shuttle Friday.

Plans call for Olivas to staple the torn thermal blanket to an adjacent blanket and then use pins to secure the blanket to a thermal tile. He will stand on the shuttle's robot arm to do the job. Meanwhile, his spacewalking partner Jim Reilly will work on a vent on one of the ISS labs and be available to assist Olivas if necessary.

Olivas and Reilly's spacewalk is scheduled for 11:38 a.m. El Paso time on Friday, and the shuttle repair will be Olivas' first task. The spacewalk will be shown live on NASA TV in the Mine Shaft on the second floor of Union East. The public is welcome to come watch.

On Wednesday Pat Forrester and Steve Swanson completed a tough spacewalk of more than seven hours. They retracted an old solar array and worked on a new solar array attached Monday by Olivas and Reilly.

The UTEP-UT Austin Cooperative Program held its White Coat Ceremony on Friday, June 1 at the TómasRiveraConferenceCenter, Third Floor of Union East.

Ten
pharmacy students who completed the first two years of the program
received white lab coats and took the Oath of a Pharmacist as a class.

The
ceremony marks a new beginning in the life of these pharmacy students,
who will spend the next two years at UT Austin and complete their last
two years at UTEP. The six-year program, created in 1995 to alleviate
pharmacist shortages, leads to a doctor of pharmacy degree.

The crew on Atlantis and the International Space Station today successfully unfurled two solar arrays that Danny Olivas and Jim Reilly wired up during their 6 hour spacewalk on Tuesday.

The work day began at 7:08 a.m. with the wake up song "It's a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. The song was requested by Olivas' wife and children.

After rolling out the solar arrays, the crew enjoyed some time off from work for a few hours. At 7:13 p.m. Olivas and his crewmates participated in a live television interview with CBS News and El Paso's KFOX and KTSM stations.

Olivas said he was thrilled by the sight of Earth and the stars during his first-ever spacewalk Tuesday, but "I tried to keep my head in the game and focus on my work."

Reilly, who participated in shuttle missions in 1998 and 2001, complimented his partner.

"The great thing about Danny is he was like a veteran space walker from the moment he got outside," Reilly said.

On Wednesday, Steve Swanson and Pat Forrester will spacewalk to retract an old solar array. Danny and Reilly's next spacewalk is scheduled for 11:38 p.m. El Paso time on Friday, June 15.

Astronauts Jim Reilly (left) and Danny Olivas (bottom right), participate in the mission's first spacewalk on Monday. Olivas and Reilly wired up a new space station segment in preparation for a solar array rollout on Tuesday.

Danny Olivas and fellow mission specialist Jim Reilly emerged from an airlock on the International Space Station at 2 p.m. El Paso time on Monday to embark on mission STS-117's first spacewalk.

Spectators watching the event in Miner Mission Control in the Union East's Mine Shaft lounge applauded and whooped with pride when Olivas took his first-ever steps in space.

The astronauts, scheduled for a 6-and-a-half hour spacewalk, were tasked with making power, data and cooling connections between the station and a new segment that contains solar arrays. The arrays will help boost the power that runs experiments on the station.

As the spacewalk entered its fourth hour, NASA's Mission Management Team announced that Atlantis' flight will be extended two days, allowing for a fourth spacewalk.

The spacewalk was delayed for about an hour due to a problem with gyroscopes that control the position of the station. Flight controllers were able to resolve the issue.

NASA will decide Tuesday whether to repair a thermal blanket on the shuttle's exterior. The repair could be done on the third or the newly added fourth spacewalk, officials said.

Florida Today's minute-by-minute space blog reported that Mission Control warned Olivas to be cautious around a sharp object protruding from the station that could have tore into his space suit.

"Thank you very much for looking out for me," Olivas said.

On Tuesday, the crew is scheduled to unfurl the solar arrays on the new truss segment. Also, local television stations are scheduled to conduct a live interview with Olivas and his fellow astronauts at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Olivas and Jim Reilly's next spacewalk is scheduled for Friday, June 15.

UTEP grad John "Danny" Olivas today will conduct the first spacewalk of Mission STS-117. The excursion, which will focus on the on-orbit assembly of the station, is slated to begin at 12:53 p.m. El Paso time.

The spacewalk will be shown on NASA TV in the Mine Shaft at the Union Building East today.

Space shuttle Atlantis carrying the 1989 UTEP grad successfully launched Friday, June 8. Olivas is part of the Mission STS-117 crew that will resume construction of the International Space Station. Olivas and the STS-117 crew arrived at the station Sunday afternoon.

During the 11-day mission, the crew will install the girder-like S3/S4 truss segment, unfold a new set of solar arrays and retract one array on the starboard side of the station.

As launch time ticked down to the last minute, then
30 seconds, then 10 seconds, the nervous chatter of spectators across
the nation fell silent -- at the press site in Florida, the Mine Shaft
at the Union Building at UTEP, and in the homes of Miners around the
country.

Plumes of white steam erupted from both sides of the
pad, followed by a blinding yellow flash as the rocket boosters lifted
Atlantis into the air.

Congratulations to Danny, the El Paso kid who was just like any other kid we see in our neighborhoods today.

To read more from the blog of University
Communications Senior Writer David Peregrino reporting from Kennedy
Space Center, visit www.utep.edu/dannyolivas

Launch Party at the Mine Shaft

June 8, 2007

Illustration by UTEP University Communications

The UTEP community is invited to watch the lift off of space shuttle Atlantis and other mission STS-117 activities at Miner Mission Control, located in the Mine Shaft, second floor, Union Building East.

UTEP alumnus Danny Olivas is part of a seven-astronaut crew that will add a new section to the International Space Station.

UTEP will host a party in the Mine Shaft from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. today. The launch of Atlantis is scheduled for 5:38 p.m. El Paso time.

The event will feature live coverage of the launch on a big screen, photo opportunities with life-size cut outs of Danny and the crew, and space-themed food and drink specials for sale.

Residents across the borderland and Miners across the country are cheering and praying for UTEP's own Danny Olivas, who'll be aboard space shuttle Atlantis when it launches this evening.

Olivas, a 1989 UTEP grad, is part of the Mission STS-117 crew that will resume construction of the International Space Station. During the 11-day mission, the crew will install the girder-like S3/S4 truss segment, unfold a new set of solar arrays and retract one array on the starboard side of the station.

A launch party is set for 3 to 8 p.m. today at the Union Building East, 2nd Floor. The launch will be shown on big screens at the Mine Shaft, and visitors will have the opportunity to have their photo taken with life-size cut-outs of Olivas. The event is free and open to the public.

As we countdown to today's launch, here's some key milestones for the crew, in El Paso time.

Kate Miller, UTEP geology professor and associate dean of science, is one of 29 finalist competing for a prestigious grant from the National Math and Science Initiative.

Miller was selected from a pool of more than 50 to submit a proposal to replicate UTeach, a science and mathematics teacher-training program established at the University of Texas at Austin. Ten applicants will be selected in October to receive a grant, which could each total $2.4 million over five years.

The National Math and Science Initiative was launched in March 2007 to address the declining number of teachers qualified to effectively teach science, mathematics and computer sciences to K-12 students. For more information about the initiative, visit http://www.nationalmathandscience.org/.

- Kim Miller and Laura Cruz

"Swirl" into Project Space

June 1, 2007

Flowers and birds hand crafted from x-ray films are what artist and metalsmith Julia Barello does best.

Barello's exhibit "Swirl" is currently on display in Project Space, inside the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts. Her unique collection of x-ray films, which retain imprints of the human body, are used to create visually complex pieces. She hand-cuts, dyes and stacks the images before anchoring them in place with silver.

Barello is an associate professor of metalsmithing and jewelry at New Mexico State University. She earned her master's from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1992.

The exhibit runs now through Sept. 1. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. The center is closed Sunday and Monday.